November 18, 2016

Watson Coleman Statement On Trump Nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions to U.S. Attorney General

Washington, D.C. (November 18, 2016) – Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) released the following statement after it was reported that President-elect Trump plans to nominate Senator Jeff Sessions as the next Attorney General of the United States:

“I wish I could spend this transition period working with President-elect Trump on ways to solve our nation’s most pressing issues. However, every day, Americans are waking up to new revelations that give us greater pause about a Trump presidency – plummeting confidence that Mr. Trump is prepared to truly bring about the positive change that he touted. The latest example is the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions to become United States Attorney General.  Jeff Sessions’ well-documented and unrefuted record of bigotry and racism disqualified his nomination to a federal judgeship in the 1980s by a GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. I am appalled that President-elect Trump can look at that same history and still find Mr. Sessions qualified to be the top law enforcement official in the nation.

“Mr. Sessions’ history of racially charged remarks, and his record in the U.S. Senate of trying to undermine federal protections for vulnerable Americans make him ill-suited for Attorney General. A Trump-Sessions Department of Justice would be not only an attack on our civil rights and equality, it would also be an insult to the intelligence of the American people. We all should recognize that a man who only disavowed the Ku Klux Klan because some of them smoked marijuana is unfit to serve our nation at the most consequential levels. I strongly urge President-elect Trump to withdraw this nomination, and if not withdrawn, I call on the Senate to reject this nominee.

“It is clear through whom he has surrounded himself with, and the reported disarray of his transition team, that President-elect Trump is dead-set on carrying out his reckless campaign promises. Some people may be fatigued by the deluge of problematic decisions by Mr. Trump, but we cannot let that fatigue distract us from the fact that Mr. Trump is quickly proving not only to be just as unprepared to serve as President as we feared, but even more committed to rolling back the progress that we’ve made over the past 8 years. Americans of good will must not sit idly by as Donald Trump tries to overwhelm us into tacit submission to his dangerous agenda.”

###